Adaptive distribution of content

ABSTRACT

A method of delivering content to a user equipment (UE). The method comprises collecting radio operation data by a monitor application executing on a communication processor of the UE; sending the radio operation data by the monitor application to a data analysis application executing on a computer system; analyzing the data by the data analysis application to determine a device technology of the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of low throughput radio usage, a history of communication latency, and a history of cell sites the UE attached to; and providing a report on the UE including the device technology of the UE and the history of radio usage of the UE by the computer system to a third party for use in delivering content in a format selected based on the report.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND

Wireless communication devices may receive content from various sourcesin various formats for presentation to a user of the device. Textmessage content may be sent to the device and presented as a shortmessage service (SMS) message or a text message. Richer content thatembeds an image may be sent as a multimedia message service (MMS)message. Video content may be sent to the device for presentation to theuser. Augmented reality content may be sent to the device forpresentation to the user. Virtual reality content may be sent to thedevice for presentation to the user.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, a method of routing and delivering content to a userequipment (UE) is disclosed. The method comprises collecting radiooperation data by a monitor application executing on a communicationprocessor of the UE, sending the radio operation data by the monitorapplication to a client application executing on a general-purposeprocessor of the UE, and sending the radio operation data by the clientapplication via a wireless communication link to a collector applicationexecuting on a computer system. The method further comprises sending theradio operation data by the collector application to a data analysisapplication executing on the computer system, analyzing the radiooperation data by the data analysis application to determine a devicetechnology of the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage of theUE, a history of medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a history oflow throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of communicationlatency, a history of network slice utilization, and a history of cellsites the UE attached to, and analyzing a plurality of network elementsinvolved in providing communication links to the UE to determine ahistory of data throughput of the network elements, a history of latencyof the network elements, and a history of jitter of the network elementsby the data analysis application. The method further comprisesgenerating a report on the UE by the computer system including thedevice technology of the UE, the history of radio usage of the UE and onthe history of the network elements, receiving requests by a contentdistribution application executing on the computer system from a thirdparty to distribute content to the UE, and sending content by thecontent distribution application to the UE.

In another embodiment, a method of delivering content to a userequipment (UE) is disclosed. The method comprises collecting radiooperation data by a monitor application executing on a communicationprocessor of the UE, sending the radio operation data by the monitorapplication to a client application executing on a general-purposeprocessor of the UE, and sending the radio operation data by the clientapplication via a wireless communication link to a collector applicationexecuting on a computer system. The method further comprises sending theradio operation data by the collector application to a data analysisapplication executing on the computer system and analyzing the radiooperation data by the data analysis application to determine a devicetechnology of the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage of theUE, a history of medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a history oflow throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of communicationlatency, a history of network slice utilization, and a history of cellsites the UE attached to. The method further comprises generating by thecomputer system a recommended routing rule for delivering content to theUE based on analyzing the radio operation data, wherein the routing ruleidentifies times for delivering high throughput content, times fordelivering medium throughput content, and times for delivering lowthroughput content and identifies the device technology of the UE andsending the recommended routing rule to a third party for use indelivering content to the UE. The method further comprises, based on therecommended routing rule, based on the device technology of the UE, andbased on a current time, selecting a format of a content by the thirdparty and sending the content in the selected format to the UE by thethird party.

The method further comprises generating a report on the UE by thecomputer system including the device technology of the UE, the historyof radio usage of the UE and on the history of the network elements, andproviding a schedule of the UE capability for presenting content indifferent formats based on the report on the UE to a third party for usein delivering content in a format selected based on the report.

In yet another embodiment, a method of delivering content to a userequipment (UE) is disclosed. The method comprises collecting radiooperation data by a monitor application executing on a communicationprocessor of the UE, sending the radio operation data by the monitorapplication to a client application executing on a general-purposeprocessor of the UE, and sending the radio operation data by the clientapplication via a wireless communication link to a collector applicationexecuting on a computer system. The method further comprises sending theradio operation data by the collector application to a data analysisapplication executing on the computer system, analyzing the radiooperation data by the data analysis application to determine a devicetechnology of the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage of theUE, a history of medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a history oflow throughput radio usage, a history of communication latency, and ahistory of cell sites the UE attached to, and providing a report on theUE including the device technology of the UE and the history of radiousage of the UE by the computer system to a third party for use indelivering content in a format selected based on the report.

These and other features will be more clearly understood from thefollowing detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, referenceis now made to the following brief description, taken in connection withthe accompanying drawings and detailed description, wherein likereference numerals represent like parts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are flow charts of a method according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a handset according to an embodiment of thedisclosure.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a hardware architecture for a userequipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B are block diagrams of a 5G network architectureaccording to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6A is a block diagram of a software architecture according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 6B is a block diagram of another software architecture according toan embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a computer system according to anembodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It should be understood at the outset that although illustrativeimplementations of one or more embodiments are illustrated below, thedisclosed systems and methods may be implemented using any number oftechniques, whether currently known or not yet in existence. Thedisclosure should in no way be limited to the illustrativeimplementations, drawings, and techniques illustrated below, but may bemodified within the scope of the appended claims along with their fullscope of equivalents.

Content distributors are interested in sending content that iscompelling to users of user equipment (UEs), for example mobile phones,smart phones, wearable computers, headset computers, laptop computers,notebook computers, and tablet computers. Content for delivery to UEsare moving towards new formats that are more compelling such asaugmented reality (AR) video, virtual reality (VR) video, andinteractive video. These compelling formats engage user interests morerobustly and persuasively. A problem is that these formats require highquality wireless communication service that isn't always available orthat is not always supported by user equipment (UE). Specifically, theseformats require low latency and high data throughput. Typically, contentdistributors and content distribution platforms do not know thelimitations of the UEs they may send content to. In some cases, a UE maybe a 5G capable device, but at a given moment the UE may be located in awireless coverage area that only provides 4G coverage. A wirelesscommunication service provider, however, has access to much informationthat can determine what UE capabilities are and what level of wirelesscoverage is available to UEs. Providing access to this information canallow a wireless communication service provider to use limited networkresources more efficiently (e.g., not use resources sending rich contentto a UE which cannot present such rich content advantageously). Forexample, analytics of UE and/or network conditions can be leveraged touse network resources appropriately for routing appropriately selectedcontent through an effective network path at appropriate times. Part ofthis involves selecting a form of content that is suitably matched tothe capabilities of the UE to receive and present the given form ofcontent. Part of this involves selecting a form of content that issuitably matched to the network capabilities and loading at a time ofrouting the content. Some of the information that is collected andanalyzed is UE location dependent, and this in turn introduces the needto protect subscriber privacy.

The present disclosure teaches using an application or SDK pre-loaded ina systems area or an operating system of the UE that collects radioenvironment and network key performance indicators (KPIs) experienced bythe device and reports this back to a collecting service executing on acomputer system stood up directly or indirectly by the wirelesscommunication service provider. A monitor application may be stored andexecuted in a modem or communication processor of the UE where it canreadily monitor changing radio conditions experienced by the UE. Theinformation can include information about location of the UE, time theUE spends in different service bands (high throughput band, middlethroughput band, low throughput band), radio key performance indicators(RF KPIs) such as reference signal received power (RSRP) andsignal-to-noise ratio (SINR). The location of the UE may be indicated byidentities of cell sites that the UE is attached to, where the locationof the identified cell site can be used to lookup a location of the cellsite that can be used as a proxy for the location of the UE. In somecases, the information can include time the UE spends communicatingthrough different network slices, where the different network slices areassociated with different data throughput rates. The monitor applicationcaptures the information and hands it off to the SDK; the SDK sends theinformation to the collector service or collecting application; and thecollecting service hands the information off to an analysis applicationthat processes the information to make it suitable for use by others.

There are two ways this processed information can be used to address theproblems related to delivering rich content to UEs. The content sourcecan provide content to the wireless communication service provider anddefine a criteria: deliver the content when the UE is within apre-defined proximity of a key location (a premium coffee shop adcontent when the UE is close to a premium coffee shop location), whenthe UE is receiving low latency, high bandwidth coverage. The criteriacan also define a device capability or technology. When the criteria aremet, the service provider delivers the content. This may be referred toas a content queueing or caching followed by content delivery triggeredupon satisfaction of the criteria (e.g., the UE moves into ahigh-quality coverage area and/or the UE moves into an area proximate alocation of interest) approach. Alternatively, the content source canask for a list of UEs that meet the criteria, and the service providercan provide a list of a plurality of devices (e.g., phone numbers or IPaddresses of the devices) that meet the criteria—without, however,providing an identity that is considered PII, that is not trackable toan individual person.

In an embodiment, the content source may delegate the task of selectinga format of the content to be delivered to UEs based on the match of thecurrent network capability of the UE to available different contentformats. For example, a first UE is delivered a static picture and atext version of the subject content because it has low network bandwidthat present, a second UE is delivered a simple video version (e.g., a lowdefinition video) of the subject content because it has medium networkbandwidth at present, and a third UE is delivered a high definition (HD)video version of the subject content because it has high networkbandwidth at present. The evaluation of network bandwidth available tothe UE may be based on what network slice the UE is utilizing, becausedifferent network slices may be associated with low bandwidth, mediumbandwidth, or high bandwidth. To support this functionality, the serviceprovider may analyze the information received from UEs to identitynetwork elements that historically provide low network throughput andother network elements that historically provide high networkthroughput. This historical information can be used to deliver contentaccordingly. It may be that this system can provide information tocontent sources about when high network throughput is generallyavailable, whereby the content sources can better select when topromulgate their content.

In an embodiment, the precise current location of a UE is notdetermined, but rather a map of its typical locations at typical timesis developed (along with similar maps for other UE's so a specific callto the individual UE's is not required but rather it is provided in alist (or content is sent to a list) which indicates it typically will bein a desirable geography or a desirable level of network quality in ageneral time frame. In this way, the data provides a groomed listmeeting generally defined characteristics without intense individualtracking (both for privacy and for time and processor reduction). Forexample, this may define a group of UEs located in a central businessdistrict of a city in the morning drive time on a weekday with networklatency and equipment appropriate for augmented reality and/or virtualreality content formats. The service provider network may be queried bycontent sources to make sure there is not a network issue reducingtypical latency and bandwidth—but not individually checking the UEs asthe contents are being sent. Possibly even less location specific thanthat—devices resident in this geographic region which tend to haveappropriate connectivity and latency in this general time frame possiblycombined with connected to specific network elements in this geographicregion which consistently deliver appropriate connectivity and latencyin this general time frame. In an embodiment, the service provider mayprovide information about what cell site and/or the location of the cellsite UEs are attached to (the cell site location the UE is attached tois not considered PII).

Turning now to FIG. 1 , a communication system 100 is described. In anembodiment, the system 100 comprises a user equipment (UE) 102comprising a general-purpose processor 104, a non-transitory memory 106,a communication processor 108, and a cellular radio transceiver 109. TheUE may be a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a wearable computer, a headset computer, a laptop computer, anotebook computer, or a tablet computer. The communication processor 108may be a modem processor or a baseband processor. The cellular radiotransceiver is configured to establish a wireless communication linkwith a cell site 110 according to a 5G, a long-term evolution (LTE), acode division multiple access (CDMA), or a global system for mobilecommunication (GSM) telecommunication protocol. The cell site 110 isable to communicatively couple the UE 102 to a network 112 andtherethrough to other communication endpoints communicatively coupled tothe network 112. The network 112 comprises one or more public networks,one or more private networks, or a combination thereof.

The communication processor 108 executes a monitor application 120 thatcollects radio data 122 and stores the radio data 122. While the radiodata 122 is illustrated in FIG. 1 as within the monitor application 120,in an embodiment, the radio data 122 may be stored in a memory of thecommunication processor 108, for example a transitory memory or anon-transitory memory of the communication processor 108. The monitorapplication 120 may be stored in a non-transitory memory of thecommunication processor 108. The radio data 122 can include keyperformance indicators (KPI) related to radio communication between thecellular radio transceiver 109 and cell sites such as cell site 110. Theradio data 122 can include data about a reference signal received power(RSRP) at different times. For example, different values of RSRP may bestored as radio data 122 with each different RSRP value indexed by atime and/or with an identity of the cell site to which the cellularradio transceiver 109 was attached to at that time. The radio data 122can include data about a signal-to-noise radio (SINR) at differenttimes. For example, different values of SINR may be stored as radio data122 with each different SINR value indexed by a time and/or with anidentity of the cell site to which the cellular radio transceiver 109was attached to at that time. At least some of the radio data 122 maycomprise metadata such as a device model and radio technology of the UE102. The radio data 122 may also include information about what networkslices the UE 102 is using at different times. The information aboutnetwork slices may be used to infer data throughput accessible to the UE102 at different times. Said in other words, the network slices used bythe UE 102 may serve as a proxy for determining a data throughputaccessible to the UE 102.

The monitor application 120 may send the collected radio data 122 to aclient application 124 stored in a non-transitory portion of the memory106 that is executed by the general-purpose processor 104. In anembodiment, the client application 124 may be stored in a system portionor a system partition of the non-transitory portion of the memory 106.The monitor application 120 may send radio data 122 to the clientapplication 124 periodically or on an event, for example on the event ofthe collected radio data 122 exceeding a threshold number of entries orlogs. Alternatively, the monitor application 120 may send the radio data122 to the client application 124 in response to receiving a requestfrom the client application 124. The client application 124 sends theradio data 122 received from the monitor application 120 to a collectorapplication 126 executing on a computer system 128 via the communicationlinks of cellular radio transceiver 109 to the cell site 110, the cellsite 110 to the network 112, and the network 112 to the computer system128.

In an embodiment, the client application 124 may be an applicationprovided on the UE 102 by the wireless communication service provider toprovide a variety of subscriber support features independent of theforwarding of radio data 122 to the collector application 126. Forexample, the client application 124 may support subscribers accessing aapplication repository or application store provided by the serviceprovider. For example, the client application 124 may supportsubscribers accessing a subscription account to pay a bill, to add a newline to the account, to buy a new UE, or to reach out to a customer caresite. In some contexts, the client application 124 may be referred to asan SDK.

The collector application 126 receives radio data 122 from the UE 102and possibly a large number of other UEs also subscribed to receivewireless communication service from the service provider. Accordingly,the collector application 126 may act as a portal for receiving andbuffering this large volume of radio data 122. In an embodiment, thecollector application 126 may store the radio data 122 in a data store134 for processing by an analysis application 130 that executes on thecomputer system 128. In an embodiment, the collector application 126simply stores the radio data 122 in the data store 134 as it is receivedfrom the UEs. Alternatively, in an embodiment, the collector application126 may generate a variety of supplemental data that it attaches to theradio data 122 as received from the UEs. For example, the collectorapplication 126 may add a time and date stamp to record when the radiodata 122 was received. The collector application 126 may add otherrelevant information to the radio data 122 as well before storing in thedata store 134. In an embodiment, the computer system 128 and the datastore 134 may be provided by a cloud computing environment 136. Forexample, the collector application 128 and the analysis application 130may execute in virtual server resources provided by the cloud computingenvironment 136, and the data store 134 may be provided as a cloudstorage resource in the cloud computing environment 136. Alternatively,the computer system 128 and the data store 134 may be provided in aconventional environment, for example in a data center operated by awireless communication service provider.

The analysis application 130 may be said to process the radio data 122stored in the data store 134 to produce actionable information that isstored in the data store 134. Some of the processing may involvedetermining relevant statistical representations of the radio data 122,for example calculating average values of KPIs during each of aplurality of different time intervals for each UE. The time intervalsmay be different hours in each of the days of the week. The timeintervals may be different 15-minute intervals in each of the days ofthe week. The analysis application 130 may determine relevant statisticsacross a plurality of UEs, for example UEs of a same model or capabilitylevel, for example UEs attached to the same cell site 110. The analysisapplication 130 may determine relevant statistics associated withnetwork elements located inside the network 112—for example routers,gateways, and other communication nodes [Inventors: what other specificdifferent network elements can I add to this list? Are these names ofnetwork elements still relevant in the context of 5G networks where thenetwork is provided by network functions?].

The actionable information that the analysis application 130 generatesbased on the radio data 122 stored in the data store 134 may be used toidentify a suitable content format that can be advantageously presentedby a given UE 102 at a given time and/or in a given location. Forexample, if the UE 102 has a limited bandwidth connection to the cellsite 110 and/or to the network 112, it may not be desirable to send ahigh definition (HD) video to the UE 102, because the user of the UE 102may get frustrated and have a negative experience as the subject HDvideo content falters and balks when pushing a high volume of datacontent down a low throughput data pipe. It may be more desirable tosend a static image and text format content under this circumstance tothe UE 102.

In an embodiment, the computer system 128 further executes a contentdistribution application 132 that receives requests from a third-partycontent source 140 via the network 112 to send content to the UE 102.The third-party content source 140 may retrieve content from a contentdata store 142 and send this to the content distribution application132. Alternatively, the third-party content source 140 may send arequest including a reference to the content in the content data store142 to the content distribution application 132, and the contentdistribution application 132 uses the reference received in the requestto itself fetch the content from the content data store 142. In anembodiment, the content may comprise advertisement content. In anembodiment, the content may comprise public service announcementcontent. In an embodiment, the content may comprise premiumcommunication service content. In an embodiment, the content maycomprise entertainment content.

In an embodiment, the content distribution application 132 isresponsible for selecting a format of the designated content to send tothe UE 102 (and possibly send to other UEs designated by the requestfrom the third-party content source 140). For example, the contentidentified in the request may be a generic reference that is associatedwith differently formatted versions of the content—a virtual realityversion of the content, a HD video version of the content, a simplevideo version of the content, a static image and text version of thecontent. The content distribution application 132 may evaluate which ofthe different formats of the referenced content to send to the UE 102based on the analysis completed by the analysis application 130 (e.g.,the “actionable information”). In a first circumstance (the UE 102 is alow capability device), the content distribution application 132 mayselect the static image and text version of the content and send thisformatted content to the UE 102 for presentation. In a secondcircumstance (the UE 102 is a high capability device and the UE 102 iscurrently connected to a cell site 110 with a history of providing highdata throughput), the content distribution application 132 may selectthe virtual reality version of the content and send this formattedcontent to the UE 102 for presentation. The content distributionapplication 132 can make these decisions based on the history of theradio data provided by the UE 102, for example presume that the UE is ina robust coverage area supporting high data throughput based on theradio data 122 historical analysis rather than determining preciselywhat the coverage is that the UE 102 is experiencing at that particulartime.

In an embodiment, the third-party content source 140 sends the requestto the content distribution application 132 including a criteria forsending the content to the UE 102, for example a criteria specifyingthat the UE 102 is proximate to a particular location and has aparticular device capability suitable for presenting the subjectcontent. The content distribution application 132 may enqueue or cachethe request and defer sending the subject content until the UE 102 isdetermined to be proximate to the particular location indicated in therequest. In an embodiment, the content distribution application 132 maylaunch a separate execution thread associated with each pending requestthat goes to sleep, periodically wakes up and checks the status of theUE 102 associated with a request, determines if the criteria are met, ifthe criteria are met, sends the designated content to the UE 102, if thecriteria are not me, goes back to sleep for a pre-defined interval oftime. In an embodiment, the thread may cancel the request after amaximum number of tries or tests or after a maximum period of time suchas 24 hours, 36 hours, 2 days, 3 days, a week, or some other period oftime.

In an embodiment, the analysis application 130 may provide a digest ofthe radio data 122 associated with the UE 102 (and other UEs), and thethird-party content source 140 may use this digest to decide whatcontent formats to send to the UE 102 directly on its own. The digestmay comprise statistics determined based on the radio data 122 of the UE102 associated with a particular day of the week and a particular timeslot, for example a particular hour time interval. The digest maycomprise information related to the cell sites 110 that the UE 102attaches to at different times, for example the locations of the cellsites 110 or identities of the cell sites 110 that the third-partycontent source 140 can use to map to a general geographical area. Thiskind of information is customarily deemed NOT personally identifiableinformation (PII) but rather wireless communication service providernetwork information.

Turning now to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, a method 200 is described. In anembodiment, the method 200 is a method of routing and delivering contentto a user equipment (UE). At block 202, the method 200 comprisescollecting radio operation data by a monitor application executing on acommunication processor of the UE. In an embodiment, the UE comprises amobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), awearable computer, a headset computer, a laptop computer, a notebookcomputer, or a tablet computer. In an embodiment, the radio operationdata comprises radio communication key performance indicators (KPIs). Inan embodiment, the radio operation data comprises reference signalreceived power (RSRP) radio operation data and signal-to-noise ratio(SINR) radio operation data. In an embodiment, the radio operation datacomprises information about usage of network slices by the UE. In anembodiment, the information about usage of network slices comprises timeand date stamped information on usage of an enhanced mobile broadband(*eMBB) network slice by the UE, time and data stamped information onusage of a ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) networkslice by the UE, and time and date stamped information on usage of avehicle to everything (V2X) network slice by the UE.

At block 204, the method 200 comprises sending the radio operation databy the monitor application to a client application executing on ageneral-purpose processor of the UE. At block 206, the method 200comprises sending the radio operation data by the client application viaa wireless communication link to a collector application executing on acomputer system. In an embodiment, the wireless communication link isprovided according to at least one of a 5G, a long-term evolution (LTE),a code division multiple access (CDMA), or a global system for mobilecommunication (GSM) telecommunication protocol, for example is providedby the cell site 110 to the cellular radio transceiver 109 of the UE102. At block 208, the method 200 comprises sending the radio operationdata by the collector application to a data analysis applicationexecuting on the computer system.

At block 210, the method 200 comprises analyzing the radio operationdata by the data analysis application to determine a device technologyof the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage of the UE, a historyof medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of low throughputradio usage of the UE, a history of communication latency of the UE, ahistory of network slice utilization of the UE, and a history of cellsites the UE attached to. The analysis of radio operation data todetermine the history of high throughput radio usage, the history ofmedium throughput radio usage, and the history of low throughput radiousage by the device may be based on determining and analyzing “time onband.” Said in other words, the analysis of radio operation data todetermine the histories of throughput of radio usage by the device maybe based, at least in part, on analyzing frequency bands and/or channelsassigned to the device over time. In an embodiment, the radio operationdata is analyzed to determine a history of 5G communication protocolusage. In an embodiment, the radio operation data is analyzed todetermine a history of 4 G communication protocol usage. In anembodiment, analyzing the radio operation data comprises determining ahistory of cell sites that the UE attaches to and wherein generating thereport on the UE comprises a history of locations of the cell sites theUE attaches to, wherein the locations of the cell sites are a proxy fora location of the UE. At block 212, the method 200 comprises analyzing aplurality of network elements involved in providing communication linksto the UE to determine a history of data throughput of the networkelements, a history of latency of the network elements, and a history ofjitter of the network elements by the data analysis application. In anembodiment, the network elements comprise routers and gateways. In anembodiment, the processing of blocks 210 and 212 may be said to identifyand/or analyze device or UE related information and network relatedinformation and to analyze all that information in an integrated way.

At block 214, the method 200 comprises generating a report on the UE bythe computer system including the device technology of the UE, thehistory of radio usage of the UE and on the history of the networkelements. At block 216, the method 200 comprises receiving requests by acontent distribution application executing on the computer system from athird party to distribute content to the UE.

At block 218, the method 200 comprises sending content by the contentdistribution application to the UE. In an embodiment, the method 200further comprises determining a format of the content to be sent to theUE from a plurality of different available formats of the content basedon the report. In an embodiment, the different available formats of thecontent comprise a static picture format, a text format, a lowdefinition (LD) video format, a high definition (HD) video format, anaugmented reality (AR) format, and a virtual reality (VR) format. Thedetermining of the format of the content may be performed by thecomputer system, for example by the content distribution application132. The determining of the format of the content may be performed bythe third-party, for example by the third-party content source 140 basedon having received a copy of the report on the UE (and many other UEs)from the computer system.

In an embodiment, the request received from the third-party comprises atleast one criterium defining a condition for sending the content by thecontent distribution application to the UE; and the method 200 furthercomprises queueing the content by the computer system before sending thecontent to the UE; periodically determining by the computer system ifthe at least one criterium is satisfied before sending the content tothe UE; and determining that the criterium is satisfied, wherein sendingthe content by the content distribution application to the UE istriggered based on determining the at least one criterium is satisfied.In this sense at least, the method 200 may be considered to be in part amethod of routing content. In an embodiment, the at least one criteriumcomprises a location criterium, a wireless link data throughputcriterium, or a wireless link latency criterium. In an embodiment, theat least one criterium comprises a network element data throughputcriterium, a network element latency criterium, or a network elementpercent utilization criterium.

In an embodiment, the processing of blocks 216 and 218 described abovedo not happen, and the method 200 comprises providing a schedule of theUE capability for presenting content in different formats based on thereport on the UE to the third-party for use in delivering content in aformat selected based on the report. Said in other words, in anembodiment the computer system sends the schedule of UE capability tothe third-party, and the third-party itself decides what content and/orformat of content to send to the UE based on the schedule of UEcapability and itself sends the content directly to the UE withoutrouting the content through the computer system and/or the wirelesscommunication service provider. In an embodiment, the analyzing theradio operation data of block 210 comprises determining a history ofcell sites that the UE attaches to and wherein generating the report onthe UE comprises a history of locations of the cell sites the UEattaches to, wherein the locations of the cell sites are a proxy for alocation of the UE. In an embodiment, the schedule of UE capabilitycomprises a map of typical locations of the UE at typical times.

In an embodiment, the processing of blocks 216 and 218 described abovedo not happen, and the method 200 comprises providing a report on the UEincluding the device technology of the UE and the history of radio usageof the UE by the computer system to the third-party for use indelivering content in a format selected based on the report. Said inother words, in an embodiment the computer system sends the report onthe UE and the device technology of the UE to the third-party, and thethird-party itself decides what content and/or format of content to sendto the UE based on the report and itself sends the content directly tothe UE without routing the content through the computer system and/orthe wireless communication service provider. In an embodiment, theprocessing of method 200 comprising receiving a request from thethird-party for a list of UEs that meet a criteria specified in therequest, wherein the analysis of the radio operation data indicates thatthe UE meets the criteria, and wherein the report provided to thethird-party comprises history of radio usage of other UEs that also meetthe criteria specified in the request.

In an embodiment, method 200 may comprise generating by the computersystem a recommended routing rule for delivering content to the UE basedon analyzing the radio operation data, wherein the routing ruleidentifies times for delivering high throughput content, times fordelivering medium throughput content, and times for delivering lowthroughput content and identifies the device technology of the UE.

The method 200 may further comprise sending the recommended routing ruleto a third party for use in delivering content to the UE and, based onthe recommended routing rule, based on the device technology of the UE,and based on a current time, selecting a format of a content by thethird party and sending the content in the selected format to the UE bythe third party. In an embodiment, analyzing the radio operation datacomprises determining a history of cell sites that the UE attaches toand wherein the recommended routing rule identifies locations of thecell sites the UE attaches to and when the UE attaches to them, whereinthe locations of the cell sites are a proxy for a location of the UE. Inan embodiment, the recommended routing rule comprises a map of typicallocations of the UE at typical times.

FIG. 3 depicts the user equipment (UE) 400, which is operable forimplementing aspects of the present disclosure, but the presentdisclosure should not be limited to these implementations. Thoughillustrated as a mobile phone, the UE 400 may take various formsincluding a wireless handset, a pager, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a gaming device, or a media player. The UE 400 includes atouchscreen display 402 having a touch-sensitive surface for input by auser. A small number of application icons 404 are illustrated within thetouch screen display 402. It is understood that in differentembodiments, any number of application icons 404 may be presented in thetouch screen display 402. In some embodiments of the UE 400, a user maybe able to download and install additional applications on the UE 400,and an icon associated with such downloaded and installed applicationsmay be added to the touch screen display 402 or to an alternativescreen. The UE 400 may have other components such as electro-mechanicalswitches, speakers, camera lenses, microphones, input and/or outputconnectors, and other components as are well known in the art. The UE400 may present options for the user to select, controls for the user toactuate, and/or cursors or other indicators for the user to direct. TheUE 400 may further accept data entry from the user, including numbers todial or various parameter values for configuring the operation of thehandset. The UE 400 may further execute one or more software or firmwareapplications in response to user commands. These applications mayconfigure the UE 400 to perform various customized functions in responseto user interaction. Additionally, the UE 400 may be programmed and/orconfigured over-the-air, for example from a wireless base station, awireless access point, or a peer UE 400. The UE 400 may execute a webbrowser application which enables the touch screen display 402 to show aweb page. The web page may be obtained via wireless communications witha base transceiver station, a wireless network access node, a peer UE400 or any other wireless communication network or system.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the UE 400. While a variety of knowncomponents of handsets are depicted, in an embodiment a subset of thelisted components and/or additional components not listed may beincluded in the UE 400. The UE 400 includes a digital signal processor(DSP) 502 and a memory 504. As shown, the UE 400 may further include oneor more antenna and front end unit 506, a one or more radio frequency(RF) transceiver 508, a baseband processing unit 510, a microphone 512,an earpiece speaker 514, a headset port 516, an input/output interface518, a removable memory card 520, a universal serial bus (USB) port 522,an infrared port 524, a vibrator 526, one or more electro-mechanicalswitches 528, a touch screen display 530, a touch screen controller 532,a camera 534, a camera controller 536, and a global positioning system(GPS) receiver 538. In an embodiment, the UE 400 may include anotherkind of display that does not provide a touch sensitive screen. In anembodiment, the UE 400 may include both the touch screen display 530 andadditional display component that does not provide a touch sensitivescreen. In an embodiment, the DSP 502 may communicate directly with thememory 504 without passing through the input/output interface 518.Additionally, in an embodiment, the UE 400 may comprise other peripheraldevices that provide other functionality.

The DSP 502 or some other form of controller or central processing unitoperates to control the various components of the UE 400 in accordancewith embedded software or firmware stored in memory 504 or stored inmemory contained within the DSP 502 itself. In addition to the embeddedsoftware or firmware, the DSP 502 may execute other applications storedin the memory 504 or made available via information carrier media suchas portable data storage media like the removable memory card 520 or viawired or wireless network communications. The application software maycomprise a compiled set of machine-readable instructions that configurethe DSP 502 to provide the desired functionality, or the applicationsoftware may be high-level software instructions to be processed by aninterpreter or compiler to indirectly configure the DSP 502.

The DSP 502 may communicate with a wireless network via the analogbaseband processing unit 510. In some embodiments, the communication mayprovide Internet connectivity, enabling a user to gain access to contenton the Internet and to send and receive e-mail or text messages. Theinput/output interface 518 interconnects the DSP 502 and variousmemories and interfaces. The memory 504 and the removable memory card520 may provide software and data to configure the operation of the DSP502. Among the interfaces may be the USB port 522 and the infrared port524. The USB port 522 may enable the UE 400 to function as a peripheraldevice to exchange information with a personal computer or othercomputer system. The infrared port 524 and other optional ports such asa Bluetooth® interface or an IEEE 802.11 compliant wireless interfacemay enable the UE 400 to communicate wirelessly with other nearbyhandsets and/or wireless base stations.

In an embodiment, one or more of the radio transceivers is a cellularradio transceiver. A cellular radio transceiver promotes establishing awireless communication link with a cell site according to one or more ofa 5G, a long term evolution (LTE), a code division multiple access(CDMA), a global system for mobile communications (GSM) wirelesscommunication protocol. In an embodiment, one of the radio transceivers508 may comprise a near field communication (NFC) transceiver. The NFCtransceiver may be used to complete payment transactions withpoint-of-sale terminals or other communications exchanges. In anembodiment, each of the different radio transceivers 508 may be coupledto its own separate antenna. In an embodiment, the UE 400 may comprise aradio frequency identify (RFID) reader and/or writer device.

The switches 528 may couple to the DSP 502 via the input/outputinterface 518 to provide one mechanism for the user to provide input tothe UE 400. Alternatively, one or more of the switches 528 may becoupled to a motherboard of the UE 400 and/or to components of the UE400 via a different path (e.g., not via the input/output interface 518),for example coupled to a power control circuit (power button) of the UE400. The touch screen display 530 is another input mechanism, whichfurther displays text and/or graphics to the user. The touch screen LCDcontroller 532 couples the DSP 502 to the touch screen display 530. TheGPS receiver 538 is coupled to the DSP 502 to decode global positioningsystem signals, thereby enabling the UE 400 to determine its position.

Turning now to FIG. 5A, an exemplary communication system 550 isdescribed. Typically the communication system 550 includes a number ofaccess nodes 554 that are configured to provide coverage in which UEs552 such as cell phones, tablet computers, machine-type-communicationdevices, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and/or otherwirelessly equipped communication devices (whether or not useroperated), can operate. The access nodes 554 may be said to establish anaccess network 556. The access network 556 may be referred to as a radioaccess network (RAN) in some contexts. In a 5G technology generation anaccess node 554 may be referred to as a gigabit Node B (gNB). In 4Gtechnology (e.g., long term evolution (LTE) technology) an access node554 may be referred to as an evolved Node B (eNB). In 3G technology(e.g., code division multiple access (CDMA) and global system for mobilecommunication (GSM)) an access node 554 may be referred to as a basetransceiver station (BTS) combined with a base station controller (BSC).In some contexts, the access node 554 may be referred to as a cell siteor a cell tower. In some implementations, a picocell may provide some ofthe functionality of an access node 554, albeit with a constrainedcoverage area. Each of these different embodiments of an access node 554may be considered to provide roughly similar functions in the differenttechnology generations.

In an embodiment, the access network 556 comprises a first access node554 a, a second access node 554 b, and a third access node 554 c. It isunderstood that the access network 556 may include any number of accessnodes 554. Further, each access node 554 could be coupled with a corenetwork 558 that provides connectivity with various application servers559 and/or a network 560. In an embodiment, at least some of theapplication servers 559 may be located close to the network edge (e.g.,geographically close to the UE 552 and the end user) to deliverso-called “edge computing.” The network 560 may be one or more privatenetworks, one or more public networks, or a combination thereof. Thenetwork 560 may comprise the public switched telephone network (PSTN).The network 560 may comprise the Internet. With this arrangement, a UE552 within coverage of the access network 556 could engage inair-interface communication with an access node 554 and could therebycommunicate via the access node 554 with various application servers andother entities.

The communication system 550 could operate in accordance with aparticular radio access technology (RAT), with communications from anaccess node 554 to UEs 552 defining a downlink or forward link andcommunications from the UEs 552 to the access node 554 defining anuplink or reverse link. Over the years, the industry has developedvarious generations of RATs, in a continuous effort to increaseavailable data rate and quality of service for end users. Thesegenerations have ranged from “1G,” which used simple analog frequencymodulation to facilitate basic voice-call service, to “4G”— such as LongTerm Evolution (LTE), which now facilitates mobile broadband serviceusing technologies such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO).

Recently, the industry has been exploring developments in “5G” andparticularly “5G NR” (5G New Radio), which may use a scalable OFDM airinterface, advanced channel coding, massive MIMO, beamforming, mobilemmWave (e.g., frequency bands above 24 GHz), and/or other features, tosupport higher data rates and countless applications, such asmission-critical services, enhanced mobile broadband, and massiveInternet of Things (IoT). 5G is hoped to provide virtually unlimitedbandwidth on demand, for example providing access on demand to as muchas 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) downlink data throughput and as much as10 Gbps uplink data throughput. Due to the increased bandwidthassociated with 5G, it is expected that the new networks will serve, inaddition to conventional cell phones, general internet service providersfor laptops and desktop computers, competing with existing ISPs such ascable internet, and also will make possible new applications in internetof things (IoT) and machine to machine areas.

In accordance with the RAT, each access node 554 could provide serviceon one or more radio-frequency (RF) carriers, each of which could befrequency division duplex (FDD), with separate frequency channels fordownlink and uplink communication, or time division duplex (TDD), with asingle frequency channel multiplexed over time between downlink anduplink use. Each such frequency channel could be defined as a specificrange of frequency (e.g., in radio-frequency (RF) spectrum) having abandwidth and a center frequency and thus extending from a low-endfrequency to a high-end frequency. Further, on the downlink and uplinkchannels, the coverage of each access node 554 could define an airinterface configured in a specific manner to define physical resourcesfor carrying information wirelessly between the access node 554 and UEs552.

Without limitation, for instance, the air interface could be dividedover time into frames, subframes, and symbol time segments, and overfrequency into subcarriers that could be modulated to carry data. Theexample air interface could thus define an array of time-frequencyresource elements each being at a respective symbol time segment andsubcarrier, and the subcarrier of each resource element could bemodulated to carry data. Further, in each subframe or other transmissiontime interval (TTI), the resource elements on the downlink and uplinkcould be grouped to define physical resource blocks (PRBs) that theaccess node could allocate as needed to carry data between the accessnode and served UEs 552.

In addition, certain resource elements on the example air interfacecould be reserved for special purposes. For instance, on the downlink,certain resource elements could be reserved to carry synchronizationsignals that UEs 552 could detect as an indication of the presence ofcoverage and to establish frame timing, other resource elements could bereserved to carry a reference signal that UEs 552 could measure in orderto determine coverage strength, and still other resource elements couldbe reserved to carry other control signaling such as PRB-schedulingdirectives and acknowledgement messaging from the access node 554 toserved UEs 552. And on the uplink, certain resource elements could bereserved to carry random access signaling from UEs 552 to the accessnode 554, and other resource elements could be reserved to carry othercontrol signaling such as PRB-scheduling requests and acknowledgementsignaling from UEs 552 to the access node 554.

The access node 554, in some instances, may be split functionally into aradio unit (RU), a distributed unit (DU), and a central unit (CU) whereeach of the RU, DU, and CU have distinctive roles to play in the accessnetwork 556. The RU provides radio functions. The DU provides L1 and L2real-time scheduling functions; and the CU provides higher L2 and L3non-real time scheduling. This split supports flexibility in deployingthe DU and CU. The CU may be hosted in a regional cloud data center. TheDU may be co-located with the RU, or the DU may be hosted in an edgecloud data center.

Turning now to FIG. 5B, further details of the core network 558 aredescribed. In an embodiment, the core network 558 is a 5G core network.5G core network technology is based on a service based architectureparadigm. Rather than constructing the 5G core network as a series ofspecial purpose communication nodes (e.g., an HSS node, a MME node,etc.) running on dedicated server computers, the 5G core network isprovided as a set of services or network functions. These services ornetwork functions can be executed on virtual servers in a cloudcomputing environment which supports dynamic scaling and avoidance oflong-term capital expenditures (fees for use may substitute for capitalexpenditures). These network functions can include, for example, a userplane function (UPF) 579, an authentication server function (AUSF) 575,an access and mobility management function (AMF) 576, a sessionmanagement function (SMF) 577, a network exposure function (NEF) 570, anetwork repository function (NRF) 571, a policy control function (PCF)572, a unified data management (UDM) 573, a network slice selectionfunction (NSSF) 574, and other network functions. The network functionsmay be referred to as virtual network functions (VNFs) in some contexts.

Network functions may be formed by a combination of small pieces ofsoftware called microservices. Some microservices can be re-used incomposing different network functions, thereby leveraging the utility ofsuch microservices. Network functions may offer services to othernetwork functions by extending application programming interfaces (APIs)to those other network functions that call their services via the APIs.The 5G core network 558 may be segregated into a user plane 580 and acontrol plane 582, thereby promoting independent scalability, evolution,and flexible deployment.

The UPF 579 delivers packet processing and links the UE 552, via theaccess network 556, to a data network 590 (e.g., the network 560illustrated in FIG. 5A). The AMF 576 handles registration and connectionmanagement of non-access stratum (NAS) signaling with the UE 552. Saidin other words, the AMF 576 manages UE registration and mobility issues.The AMF 576 manages reachability of the UEs 552 as well as varioussecurity issues. The SMF 577 handles session management issues.Specifically, the SMF 577 creates, updates, and removes (destroys)protocol data unit (PDU) sessions and manages the session context withinthe UPF 579. The SMF 577 decouples other control plane functions fromuser plane functions by performing dynamic host configuration protocol(DHCP) functions and IP address management functions. The AUSF 575facilitates security processes.

The NEF 570 securely exposes the services and capabilities provided bynetwork functions. The NRF 571 supports service registration by networkfunctions and discovery of network functions by other network functions.The PCF 572 supports policy control decisions and flow-based chargingcontrol. The UDM 573 manages network user data and can be paired with auser data repository (UDR) that stores user data such as customerprofile information, customer authentication number, and encryption keysfor the information. An application function 592, which may be locatedoutside of the core network 558, exposes the application layer forinteracting with the core network 558. In an embodiment, the applicationfunction 592 may be execute on an application server 559 locatedgeographically proximate to the UE 552 in an “edge computing” deploymentmode. The core network 558 can provide a network slice to a subscriber,for example an enterprise customer, that is composed of a plurality of5G network functions that are configured to provide customizedcommunication service for that subscriber, for example to providecommunication service in accordance with communication policies definedby the customer. The NSSF 574 can help the AMF 576 to select the networkslice instance (NSI) for use with the UE 552.

FIG. 6A illustrates a software environment 602 that may be implementedby the DSP 502. The DSP 502 executes operating system software 604 thatprovides a platform from which the rest of the software operates. Theoperating system software 604 may provide a variety of drivers for thehandset hardware with standardized interfaces that are accessible toapplication software. The operating system software 604 may be coupledto and interact with application management services (AMS) 606 thattransfer control between applications running on the UE 400. Also shownin FIG. 6A are a web browser application 608, a media player application610, JAVA applets 612, and the client application 124 (described abovewith reference to FIG. 1 ). The web browser application 608 may beexecuted by the UE 400 to browse content and/or the Internet, forexample when the UE 400 is coupled to a network via a wireless link. Theweb browser application 608 may permit a user to enter information intoforms and select links to retrieve and view web pages. The media playerapplication 610 may be executed by the UE 400 to play audio oraudiovisual media. The JAVA applets 612 may be executed by the UE 400 toprovide a variety of functionality including games, utilities, and otherfunctionality.

FIG. 6B illustrates an alternative software environment 620 that may beimplemented by the DSP 502. The DSP 502 executes operating system kernel(OS kernel) 628 and an execution runtime 630. The DSP 502 executesapplications 622 that may execute in the execution runtime 630 and mayrely upon services provided by the application framework 624.Applications 622 and the application framework 624 may rely uponfunctionality provided via the libraries 626.

FIG. 7 illustrates a computer system 380 suitable for implementing oneor more embodiments disclosed herein. The computer system 380 includes aprocessor 382 (which may be referred to as a central processor unit orCPU) that is in communication with memory devices including secondarystorage 384, read only memory (ROM) 386, random access memory (RAM) 388,input/output (I/O) devices 390, and network connectivity devices 392.The processor 382 may be implemented as one or more CPU chips.

It is understood that by programming and/or loading executableinstructions onto the computer system 380, at least one of the CPU 382,the RAM 388, and the ROM 386 are changed, transforming the computersystem 380 in part into a particular machine or apparatus having thenovel functionality taught by the present disclosure. It is fundamentalto the electrical engineering and software engineering arts thatfunctionality that can be implemented by loading executable softwareinto a computer can be converted to a hardware implementation bywell-known design rules. Decisions between implementing a concept insoftware versus hardware typically hinge on considerations of stabilityof the design and numbers of units to be produced rather than any issuesinvolved in translating from the software domain to the hardware domain.Generally, a design that is still subject to frequent change may bepreferred to be implemented in software, because re-spinning a hardwareimplementation is more expensive than re-spinning a software design.Generally, a design that is stable that will be produced in large volumemay be preferred to be implemented in hardware, for example in anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), because for largeproduction runs the hardware implementation may be less expensive thanthe software implementation. Often a design may be developed and testedin a software form and later transformed, by well-known design rules, toan equivalent hardware implementation in an application specificintegrated circuit that hardwires the instructions of the software. Inthe same manner as a machine controlled by a new ASIC is a particularmachine or apparatus, likewise a computer that has been programmedand/or loaded with executable instructions may be viewed as a particularmachine or apparatus.

Additionally, after the system 380 is turned on or booted, the CPU 382may execute a computer program or application. For example, the CPU 382may execute software or firmware stored in the ROM 386 or stored in theRAM 388. In some cases, on boot and/or when the application isinitiated, the CPU 382 may copy the application or portions of theapplication from the secondary storage 384 to the RAM 388 or to memoryspace within the CPU 382 itself, and the CPU 382 may then executeinstructions that the application is comprised of. In some cases, theCPU 382 may copy the application or portions of the application frommemory accessed via the network connectivity devices 392 or via the I/Odevices 390 to the RAM 388 or to memory space within the CPU 382, andthe CPU 382 may then execute instructions that the application iscomprised of. During execution, an application may load instructionsinto the CPU 382, for example load some of the instructions of theapplication into a cache of the CPU 382. In some contexts, anapplication that is executed may be said to configure the CPU 382 to dosomething, e.g., to configure the CPU 382 to perform the function orfunctions promoted by the subject application. When the CPU 382 isconfigured in this way by the application, the CPU 382 becomes aspecific purpose computer or a specific purpose machine.

The secondary storage 384 is typically comprised of one or more diskdrives or tape drives and is used for non-volatile storage of data andas an over-flow data storage device if RAM 388 is not large enough tohold all working data. Secondary storage 384 may be used to storeprograms which are loaded into RAM 388 when such programs are selectedfor execution. The ROM 386 is used to store instructions and perhapsdata which are read during program execution. ROM 386 is a non-volatilememory device which typically has a small memory capacity relative tothe larger memory capacity of secondary storage 384. The RAM 388 is usedto store volatile data and perhaps to store instructions. Access to bothROM 386 and RAM 388 is typically faster than to secondary storage 384.The secondary storage 384, the RAM 388, and/or the ROM 386 may bereferred to in some contexts as computer readable storage media and/ornon-transitory computer readable media.

I/O devices 390 may include printers, video monitors, liquid crystaldisplays (LCDs), touch screen displays, keyboards, keypads, switches,dials, mice, track balls, voice recognizers, card readers, paper tapereaders, or other well-known input devices.

The network connectivity devices 392 may take the form of modems, modembanks, Ethernet cards, universal serial bus (USB) interface cards,serial interfaces, token ring cards, fiber distributed data interface(FDDI) cards, wireless local area network (WLAN) cards, radiotransceiver cards, and/or other well-known network devices. The networkconnectivity devices 392 may provide wired communication links and/orwireless communication links (e.g., a first network connectivity device392 may provide a wired communication link and a second networkconnectivity device 392 may provide a wireless communication link).Wired communication links may be provided in accordance with Ethernet(IEEE 802.3), Internet protocol (IP), time division multiplex (TDM),data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS), wavelengthdivision multiplexing (WDM), and/or the like. In an embodiment, theradio transceiver cards may provide wireless communication links usingprotocols such as code division multiple access (CDMA), global systemfor mobile communications (GSM), long-term evolution (LTE), WiFi (IEEE802.11), Bluetooth, Zigbee, narrowband Internet of things (NB IoT), nearfield communications (NFC), and radio frequency identity (RFID). Theradio transceiver cards may promote radio communications using 5G, 5GNew Radio, or 5G LTE radio communication protocols. These networkconnectivity devices 392 may enable the processor 382 to communicatewith the Internet or one or more intranets. With such a networkconnection, it is contemplated that the processor 382 might receiveinformation from the network, or might output information to the networkin the course of performing the above-described method steps. Suchinformation, which is often represented as a sequence of instructions tobe executed using processor 382, may be received from and outputted tothe network, for example, in the form of a computer data signal embodiedin a carrier wave.

Such information, which may include data or instructions to be executedusing processor 382 for example, may be received from and outputted tothe network, for example, in the form of a computer data baseband signalor signal embodied in a carrier wave. The baseband signal or signalembedded in the carrier wave, or other types of signals currently usedor hereafter developed, may be generated according to several methodswell-known to one skilled in the art. The baseband signal and/or signalembedded in the carrier wave may be referred to in some contexts as atransitory signal.

The processor 382 executes instructions, codes, computer programs,scripts which it accesses from hard disk, floppy disk, optical disk(these various disk based systems may all be considered secondarystorage 384), flash drive, ROM 386, RAM 388, or the network connectivitydevices 392. While only one processor 382 is shown, multiple processorsmay be present. Thus, while instructions may be discussed as executed bya processor, the instructions may be executed simultaneously, serially,or otherwise executed by one or multiple processors. Instructions,codes, computer programs, scripts, and/or data that may be accessed fromthe secondary storage 384, for example, hard drives, floppy disks,optical disks, and/or other device, the ROM 386, and/or the RAM 388 maybe referred to in some contexts as non-transitory instructions and/ornon-transitory information.

In an embodiment, the computer system 380 may comprise two or morecomputers in communication with each other that collaborate to perform atask. For example, but not by way of limitation, an application may bepartitioned in such a way as to permit concurrent and/or parallelprocessing of the instructions of the application. Alternatively, thedata processed by the application may be partitioned in such a way as topermit concurrent and/or parallel processing of different portions of adata set by the two or more computers. In an embodiment, virtualizationsoftware may be employed by the computer system 380 to provide thefunctionality of a number of servers that is not directly bound to thenumber of computers in the computer system 380. For example,virtualization software may provide twenty virtual servers on fourphysical computers. In an embodiment, the functionality disclosed abovemay be provided by executing the application and/or applications in acloud computing environment. Cloud computing may comprise providingcomputing services via a network connection using dynamically scalablecomputing resources. Cloud computing may be supported, at least in part,by virtualization software. A cloud computing environment may beestablished by an enterprise and/or may be hired on an as-needed basisfrom a third party provider. Some cloud computing environments maycomprise cloud computing resources owned and operated by the enterpriseas well as cloud computing resources hired and/or leased from a thirdparty provider.

In an embodiment, some or all of the functionality disclosed above maybe provided as a computer program product. The computer program productmay comprise one or more computer readable storage medium havingcomputer usable program code embodied therein to implement thefunctionality disclosed above. The computer program product may comprisedata structures, executable instructions, and other computer usableprogram code. The computer program product may be embodied in removablecomputer storage media and/or non-removable computer storage media. Theremovable computer readable storage medium may comprise, withoutlimitation, a paper tape, a magnetic tape, magnetic disk, an opticaldisk, a solid-state memory chip, for example analog magnetic tape,compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) disks, floppy disks, jump drives,digital cards, multimedia cards, and others. The computer programproduct may be suitable for loading, by the computer system 380, atleast portions of the contents of the computer program product to thesecondary storage 384, to the ROM 386, to the RAM 388, and/or to othernon-volatile memory and volatile memory of the computer system 380. Theprocessor 382 may process the executable instructions and/or datastructures in part by directly accessing the computer program product,for example by reading from a CD-ROM disk inserted into a disk driveperipheral of the computer system 380. Alternatively, the processor 382may process the executable instructions and/or data structures byremotely accessing the computer program product, for example bydownloading the executable instructions and/or data structures from aremote server through the network connectivity devices 392. The computerprogram product may comprise instructions that promote the loadingand/or copying of data, data structures, files, and/or executableinstructions to the secondary storage 384, to the ROM 386, to the RAM388, and/or to other non-volatile memory and volatile memory of thecomputer system 380.

In some contexts, the secondary storage 384, the ROM 386, and the RAM388 may be referred to as a non-transitory computer readable medium or acomputer readable storage media. A dynamic RAM embodiment of the RAM388, likewise, may be referred to as a non-transitory computer readablemedium in that while the dynamic RAM receives electrical power and isoperated in accordance with its design, for example during a period oftime during which the computer system 380 is turned on and operational,the dynamic RAM stores information that is written to it. Similarly, theprocessor 382 may comprise an internal RAM, an internal ROM, a cachememory, and/or other internal non-transitory storage blocks, sections,or components that may be referred to in some contexts as non-transitorycomputer readable media or computer readable storage media.

While several embodiments have been provided in the present disclosure,it should be understood that the disclosed systems and methods may beembodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spiritor scope of the present disclosure. The present examples are to beconsidered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the intention is notto be limited to the details given herein. For example, the variouselements or components may be combined or integrated in another systemor certain features may be omitted or not implemented.

Also, techniques, systems, subsystems, and methods described andillustrated in the various embodiments as discrete or separate may becombined or integrated with other systems, modules, techniques, ormethods without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.Other items shown or discussed as directly coupled or communicating witheach other may be indirectly coupled or communicating through someinterface, device, or intermediate component, whether electrically,mechanically, or otherwise. Other examples of changes, substitutions,and alterations are ascertainable by one skilled in the art and could bemade without departing from the spirit and scope disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of routing and delivering content to auser equipment (UE), comprising: collecting radio operation data by amonitor application executing on a communication processor of the UE;sending the radio operation data by the monitor application to a clientapplication executing on a general-purpose processor of the UE; sendingthe radio operation data by the client application via a wirelesscommunication link to a collector application executing on a computersystem; sending the radio operation data by the collector application toa data analysis application executing on the computer system; analyzingthe radio operation data by the data analysis application to determine adevice technology of the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage ofthe UE, a history of medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a historyof low throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of communicationlatency, a history of network slice utilization, and a history of cellsites the UE attached to; analyzing a plurality of network elementsinvolved in providing communication links to the UE to determine ahistory of data throughput of the network elements, a history of latencyof the network elements, and a history of jitter of the network elementsby the data analysis application; generating a report on the UE by thecomputer system including the device technology of the UE, the historyof radio usage of the UE, and on the history of the network elements;generating by the computer system a recommended routing rule fordelivering content to the UE based on analyzing the radio operationdata, wherein the routing rule identifies times for delivering highthroughput content, times for delivering medium throughput content, andtimes for delivering low throughput content and identifies the devicetechnology of the UE; sending the recommended routing rule to a thirdparty for use in delivering content to the UE; based on the recommendedrouting rule, based on the device technology of the UE, and based on acurrent time, selecting a format of a content by the third party andsending the content in the selected format to the UE by the third party;receiving requests by a content distribution application executing onthe computer system from the third party to distribute content to theUE; and sending at least one content by the content distributionapplication to the UE.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining a format of the content to be sent to the UE from aplurality of different available formats of the content based on thereport.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the different availableformats of the content comprise a static picture format, a text format,a low definition (LD) video format, a high definition (HD) video format,an augmented reality (AR) format, and a virtual reality (VR) format. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the requests received from the thirdparty comprise at least one criterium defining a condition for sendingthe at least one content by the content distribution application to theUE and further comprising: queueing the at least one content by thecomputer system before sending the at least one content to the UE;periodically determining by the computer system if the at least onecriterium is satisfied before sending the at least one content to theUE; and determining that the criterium is satisfied, wherein sending theat least one content by the content distribution application to the UEis triggered based on determining the at least one criterium issatisfied.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one criteriumcomprises a location criterium, a wireless link data throughputcriterium, or a wireless link latency criterium.
 6. The method of claim4, wherein the at least one criterium comprises a network element datathroughput criterium, a network element latency criterium, or a networkelement percent utilization criterium.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe radio operation data comprises radio communication key performanceindicators (KPIs).
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio operationdata comprises reference signal received power (RSRP) radio operationdata and signal-to-noise ratio (SINR) radio operation data.
 9. A methodof routing and delivering content to a user equipment (UE), comprising:collecting radio operation data by a monitor application executing on acommunication processor of the UE; sending the radio operation data bythe monitor application to a client application executing on ageneral-purpose processor of the UE; sending the radio operation data bythe client application via a wireless communication link to a collectorapplication executing on a computer system; sending the radio operationdata by the collector application to a data analysis applicationexecuting on the computer system; analyzing the radio operation data bythe data analysis application to determine a device technology of theUE, a history of high throughput radio usage of the UE, a history ofmedium throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of low throughputradio usage of the UE, a history of communication latency, a history ofnetwork slice utilization of the UE, and a history of cell sites the UEattached to; generating by the computer system a recommended routingrule for delivering content to the UE based on analyzing the radiooperation data, wherein the routing rule identifies times for deliveringhigh throughput content, times for delivering medium throughput content,and times for delivering low throughput content and identifies thedevice technology of the UE; sending the recommended routing rule to athird party for use in delivering content to the UE; and based on therecommended routing rule, based on the device technology of the UE, andbased on a current time, selecting a format of a content by the thirdparty and sending the content in the selected format to the UE by thethird party.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein analyzing the radiooperation data comprises determining a history of cell sites that the UEattaches to and wherein the recommended routing rule identifieslocations of the cell sites the UE attaches to and when the UE attachesto them, wherein the locations of the cell sites are a proxy for alocation of the UE.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the recommendedrouting rule comprises a map of typical locations of the UE at typicaltimes.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein the history of network sliceutilization of the UE is an indication of network resource availabilitycaptured by the monitor application.
 13. The method of claim 9, whereinthe UE comprises a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a wearable computer, a headset computer, a laptopcomputer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.
 14. The method ofclaim 9, wherein the wireless communication link is provided accordingto at least one of a 5G, a long-term evolution (LTE), a code divisionmultiple access (CDMA), or a global system for mobile communication(GSM) telecommunication protocol.
 15. A method of delivering content toa user equipment (UE), comprising: collecting radio operation data by amonitor application executing on a communication processor of the UE;sending the radio operation data by the monitor application to a clientapplication executing on a general-purpose processor of the UE; sendingthe radio operation data by the client application via a wirelesscommunication link to a collector application executing on a computersystem; sending the radio operation data by the collector application toa data analysis application executing on the computer system; analyzingthe radio operation data by the data analysis application to determine adevice technology of the UE, a history of high throughput radio usage ofthe UE, a history of medium throughput radio usage of the UE, a historyof low throughput radio usage of the UE, a history of communicationlatency, and a history of cell sites the UE attached to; providing areport on the UE including the device technology of the UE and thehistory of radio usage of the UE by the computer system to a third partyfor use in delivering content in a format selected based on the report;generating by the computer system a recommended routing rule fordelivering content to the UE based on analyzing the radio operationdata, wherein the routing rule identifies times for delivering highthroughput content, times for delivering medium throughput content, andtimes for delivering low throughput content and identifies the devicetechnology of the UE; sending the recommended routing rule to the thirdparty for use in delivering content to the UE; and based on therecommended routing rule, based on the device technology of the UE, andbased on a current time, selecting a format of a content by the thirdparty and sending the content in the selected format to the UE by thethird party.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the radio operationdata comprises information about usage of network slices by the UE. 17.The method of claim 16, wherein the information about usage of networkslices comprises time and date stamped information on usage of anenhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) network slice by the UE, time and datastamped information on usage of a ultra-reliable low latencycommunications (URLLC) network slice by the UE, and time and datestamped information on usage of a vehicle to everything (V2X) networkslice by the UE.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein generating thereport on the UE comprises a history of locations of the cell sites theUE attaches to, and wherein the locations of the cell sites are a proxyfor a location of the UE.
 19. The method of claim 15, further comprisingreceiving a request from the third party for a list of UEs that meet acriteria specified in the request, wherein the analysis of the radiooperation data indicates that the UE meets the criteria, and wherein thereport provided to the third party comprises history of radio usage ofother UEs that also meet the criteria specified in the request.
 20. Themethod of claim 15, wherein the UE comprises a mobile phone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wearable computer, aheadset computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tabletcomputer.